John Stephenson (zoologist)

John Stephenson FRS FRSE (6 February 1871, Padiham, Lancashire - 2 February 1933, London) was a surgeon and zoologist.^[1][2] He was a leading expert on the earthworms of the Indian subcontinent.^[3]

After education at Burnley Grammar School, Stephenson matriculated at Owen's College, Manchester and graduated there B.Sc. (Lond.) in 1890 and M.B., B.Chir. (Manc.) in 1893. Stephenson was a house physician from 1893 to 1894 at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and then in 1894 at the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, London.^[2] He joined the Indian Medical Service as a lieutenant on 29 July 1895. He became captain on 29 July 1898, major on 29 January 1907, and lieutenant-colonel on 29 January 1915, retiring with that rank on 6 September 1921.^[1]

In India he was for some years engaged in military duties; he saw field service with the Tirah Expeditionary Force in 1897–98, for which he was awarded the medal and clasp, and for a time he was placed on plague duty. In 1898 he was appointed Medical Officer to the 2nd (later 22nd) Punjab Cavalry and from 1900 to 1906 he held civil surgeoncies at Peshawar, Ambala and other stations in north-west India.^[2]

On 14 December 1905 Stephenson qualified as F.R.C.S. In 1909 he received the D.Sc. At the Government College, Lahore, he became in 1906 Professor of Biology and in 1912 Professor of Zoology and also Principal of the College. He retained his academic posts at the Government College, Lahore until he retired from the Indian Medical Service. His service at Government College, Lahore was interrupted by World War I service in Egypt. From 1921 to 1929 he was a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. He resigned from the University of Edinburgh in 1929 to work at the Natural History Museum, London as one of the editors of the Fauna of British India series.^[2]

He married in 1895 and was survived by his widow, but there were no children from the marriage.

Awards and honours

• 1912 — F.R.S.E.^[4]
• 1919 — C.I.E.
• 1930 — F.R.S.

Selected publications

• as author:
  • Indian toxicology. 1906.
  • Oligochaeta. In the series: Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. London: Taylor & Francis. 1923.
  • Intelligence exercises in English. Oxford. 1927.
  • The oligochaeta. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1930.
• as translator:
  • Sanāʾī al-Ghaznavī, Abū al-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam (1910). The first book of the Ḥadīqatuʻl-ḥaqīqat; or, The enclosed garden of the truth; ed. and tr. by J. Stephenson. Calcutta: Printed at the Baptist mission press.

References

1. Crawford, D.G. (1930). "2384. Stephenson, John". Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615–1930. Volume 1 (1800–1930). Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co. p. 232.
2. "John Stephenson. 1871–1933". Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society. 1 (2): 149–152. 1933. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1933.0014.
3. Stephenson, John – Biographical entry – Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online
4. "Stephenson, Lt.-Col. John". Who's Who: p. 2339. 1919.